Retatrutide: Transitioning from Cut to Reverse & Bulk

[Necessary Evil]

Hey Fellas,

I’m currently in the home stretch (last 3-4 weeks) of a 6-month cut. This has been a long road back after a traumatic shoulder injury sidelined me for 1.5 years.

I’ve been utilizing Retatrutide during the tail end of this phase. I started at 2mg/week and have titrated up to the current dose of 6mg/week. For the final push, I’m considering bumping the dose to 9mg/week.

Once the cut is wrapped up, I plan to transition into a reverse diet. The goal is to taper the Reta as calories move up and hunger becomes more manageable. Post-reverse, I’m considering keeping a low "maintenance" dose of Reta on board to help with insulin sensitivity during the blast/bulk.

Current Stack:

• Test E: 350mg/week
• Primo E: 350mg/week
• NPP: 150mg/week
• HGH: 6 IU/day

My Questions:

1. Late-Stage Titration: Do you think bumping to 9mg for the final 3-4 weeks is worth the diminishing returns, or should I hold steady at 6mg to avoid unnecessary side effects right before the transition?
2. The Taper: During the reverse diet, what’s a logical reduction protocol per week? I want to avoid a massive hunger rebound while my metabolism stabilizes.
3. Off-Season Utility: For those using GLP-1/GIP/GCG agonists during a growth phase, what dose have you found optimal for maintaining insulin sensitivity without nuking the appetite needed to grow?

Looking forward to your insights.

 

[Psychokoak]

Hi man.

For me you don't need to increase to 9mg if 6mg suits you enough. Unless you're looking to make another dip in your calorie deficit.

For your reverse, I advise you to keep the last dose of retatrutide as long as possible. This will be the last parameter to decrease when you have the calories up.
Because the exit from deficits is hell for some. Even with a surplus you can be even hungrier than in deficit. The body asks to eat as the food is there !
In my case I like to increase by 5% every 10 days and I adjust according to weight variations. And I fight hunger more than in deficit for about 4-6 weeks.
After such a long deficit you need to re-evaluate your calorie maintenance. That's your next and first goal before think protocol. You shouldn't touch more than one lever at a time if you want to avoid problems.

In Off bulk I keep a dose of 2mg of tirzepatide or 4mg of reta for 2900-3300kcal. It helps me with hunger management and seems put my blood glucose in place with 10ui of HGH.
But we're all different. Hence the idea of reducing the reta withdrawal at the end of your reverse diet and maybe a little after the beginning of your Off-Season. To see how each dose affects your blood glucose.

 

[strixsir]

you DONT need to reverse diet while on GLP1,

its done to prevent rapid weight regain and the theoretical ramping up of metabolic rate (which is a function of energy availability) but all that is taken care of via Reta,

lower the Reta dose to half without any titration and UP your calories, a week is all it takes that your functions will be upregulated again,

Agree with taking low dose Reta for insulin sensitivity, I plan on doing exactly that.

 

[RockyP]

I spent the month of January trying to reverse diet out of a long cut myself. Similar cycle. 6 Mg of Reta. Increased my calories by 800 per day. And I ended up losing another 4 lbs. feed that Reta. If for whatever reason you want to gain weight you could try lowering the Reta a little bit. I’m finally maintaining at 4200 cals at 225 lbs which is a lot of food for me at that weight. That was my intended plan so that for the next cut I can just drop to 3700 cals, which is a breeze, and not change any output. I see reverse dieting less as driving scale weight up and more about getting your metabolism revving and dealing with more food, preferably while NOT blowing up on the scale.